Global Oil Reserves Are Shrinking Fast

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Daniel Bach (0:32)

Commuters in New York face a day of chaos as the strike-shutting to Long Island Rail Road goes into a third day.

Plus, the US and China agree to launch boards of trade and investment. And while fuel is expensive now, brace yourself, because global oil inventories are falling at a record pace.

Georgi Kantchev (0:50)

The highest that oil prices have ever reached, at least for the Brent benchmark, was $148 a barrel. This was in 2008 There are some expectations out there that the straight of hormones remains closed for another few months.

This level will be tested.

Daniel Bach (1:04)

It's Monday, May 18th. I'm Daniel Bach for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

A marathon day of negotiations has failed to end the strike on the Long Island Railroad, setting the stage for a rough start to the week for commuters. Unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the railroad, negotiated into the early hours of this morning after some prodding from the National Mediation Board and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

SPEAKER_5 (1:35)

The bottom line is no one wins in a strike. Everyone is hurt.

The hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the railroad and the thousands of unionized workers who are losing out on wages.

Daniel Bach (1:49)

The talks went well enough that both sides agreed this morning to continue, but as the Journal's Alyssa Luckpad explains, that won't save Monday morning's commute because of the time needed to get crews and trains in place.

SPEAKER_6 (2:01)

About 300,000 passengers use the railroad every day and it connects New York City and Long Island. The MTA has arranged some limited shuttle service, but they said it's going to be crowded. The MTA said riders should work from home and avoid non-essential travel. If a commuter has to get to the city, they'll either have to drive in what's probably going to be heavy traffic or they'll have to work from home until the strike ends. So long story short, it's going to be a mess.

Daniel Bach (2:28)

The Transportation Security Administration is launching a pilot screening program for Delta and JetBlue passengers catching morning flights out of Boston Logan. Starting next month, passengers will have the option to go through security at a remote terminal in Framingham, roughly 25 miles from the airport. Passengers can then jump on a shuttle bus, which will drop them off beyond airport security, allowing them to skip check-in lines, pay out of curbside drop-offs, and crowded parking lots. TSA said the program is part of a federally funded effort to modernize screening. Similar pilots have been authorized for eight other locations including Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Two senators on Capitol Hill are looking to ban digital gambling ads targeting minors. A bipartisan bill comes after a recent study found that over a third of male adolescents gambled in the past year.

States have introduced rules around the ads in a bid to tackle social media addiction, but critics say they're ineffective alongside the boom in sports betting and prediction markets. The federal bill could hit violators with fines of up to $100,000 per ad, but it would exclude broad audience sports broadcasts and direct online searches by minors.

Katie Britt (3:36)

I think we have a lot of parents out there though that don't actually know the harms of social media.

Daniel Bach (3:41)

That's Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, who is introducing the bill alongside Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal with the aim of holding platforms and AI companies accountable for the content they present to children as part of a wider push to address youth safety online. Britt says that social media companies are putting children at risk by prioritizing profits.

Katie Britt (4:01)

They are putting people behind their profits and in this case these people are our most vulnerable and our greatest asset, that's our children.

Daniel Bach (4:14)

China says it has agreed to establish bilateral boards of trade and investment with the US in a move towards shoring up a commercial truce between the world's two largest economies. China's Ministry of Commerce also said the US agreed to sell aircraft as well as aircraft engines and components to China, a boost for one notable industry where the country lags behind the US. Jonathan Chang is the Journal's Beijing bureau chief.